As Intra, in our 30-year history, the area where we have the most references is cement plants. Therefore, the cement sector has always been the sector we have followed most closely in terms of both production processes and regulations. Investments in cement plants have constantly changed over the years, both geographically and in terms of investment type. During the last 10 years before the pandemic, new cement plant investments in Europe were almost non-existent. Capacity increases and new lines were rarely undertaken by large cement production companies. The main reason for this is the strict environmental policies implemented by the European Union.
Europe, which minimized its heavy industry production, concentrated its investments in the Middle East and North Africa and started to import the products it needed in this field from these countries. In this process, cement investments and export-oriented investments (e.g. port facilities) in many developing countries, including Turkey, accelerated significantly with the incentives provided by the state.
However, we see that especially after the pandemic period, Europe started to resort to a different method and paved the way for investments in grinding facilities. To better understand why, we first need to understand the production process of cement in rough terms.
The process network, which can be seen in detail in the table, can be categorized under 5 main headings:
- Raw material extraction
- Pre-grinding and homogenization
- Baking
- Grinding
- Packaging
Out of the 5 main topics we have listed, the first 3 items in the table are the ones with high waste gas output that will cause problems related to environmental regulations.
Due to the operational difficulties in transportation due to health conditions and quarantine conditions during the pandemic period, the economic recession period that we have seen worldwide and whose effects are still ongoing, and the economic policy that we can call mercantilist that countries followed in international economies after the pandemic, Europe has accelerated its investments in grinding plants in recent years in order to maintain the import balance in cement.
We can think of the grinding plant as the last two processes of cement production. Instead of importing cement directly, Europe has started to follow a policy that aims to buy and process the clinker coming out of the kiln and so-called "nationalize" cement production. In this direction, it seems to have found an optimal solution to the production shortage without contradicting environmental regulations by establishing grinding plants. This new policy opens the doors to new business areas for us and companies like us that have achieved European standards, together with the references and experiences we have gained from past policies.
